Editing Homosexuality in Japan (section)

== Pre-Meiji Japan ==
{{Main|History of Japan}}
{{Further|LGBT themes in mythology#Japanese}}

Historically, the [[Shintoism|Shinto religion]] "had no special code of morals and seems to have regarded sex as a natural phenomenon to be enjoyed with few inhibitions."<ref name="Crompton 2003">{{cite book |last=Crompton |first=Louis |author-link=Louis Crompton |year=2003 |title=Homosexuality and Civilization |chapter=Pre-Meiji Japan |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TfBYd9xVaXcC&pg=PA413 |location=[[Cambridge, Massachusetts]] |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |isbn=9780674022331 |lccn=2003245327 |page=413 |quote=[[Japanese Shintoism]] was principally concerned with propitiatory rites and ceremonies; [[Japanese mythology|its mythology]] fostered nationalism through the [[Imperial cult#Ancient and Imperial Japan|cult of divine emperors]], but it had no special code of morals and seems to have regarded sex as a natural phenomenon to be enjoyed with few inhibitions. [[Phallus|Phallic]] [[Shinto shrine|shrines]] dotted the countryside. Premarital virginity was not rigidly insisted upon, and freeborn boys did not lose status if they had adult lovers. Early law codes penalized incest and bestiality but not [[homosexual relations]]. The [[Shinto gods|gods of the Shinto pantheon]] were themselves highly sexual. In later times, some of them were seen as "guardian deities" of [[Love between men|male love]].}}</ref> While [[Shinto#Beliefs|Shinto beliefs]] are diverse, Japanese Shintoism historically did not condemn homosexuality, unlike bestiality and incest.<ref name="Crompton 2003"/> A variety of obscure [[Japanese literature|literary references]] to [[Same-sex relationship|same-sex love]] exist in ancient sources, such as [[LGBT themes in mythology#Japanese|Japanese mythology]],<ref name="Crompton 2003"/> but many of these are so subtle as to be unreliable. Additionally, they could be conflated with profuse declarations of affection for friends of the same sex, which were common.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2016/11/19/books/shifting-sexual-norms-japans-literary-history/ |title=The shifting sexual norms in Japan's literary history|last=Flanagan|first=Damian|date=2016-11-19|website=The Japan Times|language=en-US|access-date=2019-11-12}}</ref> Due to the Chinese influence of [[Confucianism]] and [[Buddhism in china|Buddhism]], homosexuality was socially discouraged.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fian |first=Andi |date=2 December 2022 |title=BUDDHISM AND CONFUCIANISM ON HOMOSEXUALITY: THE ACCEPTANCE AND REJECTION BASED ON THE ARGUMENTS OF RELIGIOUS TEXTS |url=https://philarchive.org/archive/ALFBAC |journal=Journal of Religious Studies |language=English |publisher=Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies (CRCS) |publication-place=Sekolah Pascasarjana, Universitas Gadjah Mada |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=73–82 |via=Phil}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Sexuality and gender |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/28469/chapter/229097470 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221019071537/https://academic.oup.com/book/28469/chapter/229097470 |archive-date=2022-10-19 |access-date=2024-01-24 |website=academic.oup.com}}</ref>

Nevertheless, references do exist, and they become more numerous in the [[Heian period]], roughly in the 11th century. For example, in ''[[The Tale of Genji]]'', written in the early 11th century, men are frequently moved by the beauty of youths. In one scene the hero rejects a lady and instead sleeps with her young brother: "Genji pulled the boy down beside him ... Genji, for his part, or so one is informed, found the boy more attractive than his chilly sister".<ref>''The Tale of Genji''. Edward G. Seidensticker (trans.) p. 48.</ref> ''The Tale of Genji'' is a novel, but there are several Heian-era diaries that contain references to [[Homosexual sexual practices|homosexual acts and practices]]. Some of these contain references to [[Emperor of Japan|Emperors]] involved in homosexual relationships with "handsome boys retained for sexual purposes".<ref name="Leupp">{{cite book |last1=Leupp |first1=Gary |title=Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan |date=1997 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-91919-8 |pages=26, 32, 53, 69–78, 88, 90–92, 94, 95–97, 98–100, 101–102, 104, 113, 119–120, 122, 128–129, 132–135, 137–141, 145}}</ref>

=== Monastic homosexuality ===
{{Further|Buddhism and sexual orientation#Japanese Buddhism}}
[[File:Kuniyoshi Old-Buddhist.jpg|thumb|250px|''Old Buddhist'', by [[Utagawa Kuniyoshi]]. Note the exposed bare feet of the boy indicating the sexual demeanor while the brocade ''Kesa'' robe indicates the wealthy status of cleric.]]

''Nanshoku'' relationships inside [[Japanese Buddhism|Buddhist monasteries]] were typically [[Pederasty|pederastic]]: an age-structured relationship where the younger partner is not considered an adult. The older partner, or {{nihongo|''nenja''|念者||"lover" or "admirer"}}, would be a monk, priest or abbot, while the younger partner was assumed to be an {{nihongo|[[acolyte]]|稚児|chigo}}, who would be a prepubescent or adolescent boy;<ref>{{cite journal | doi=10.2307/2384336 | jstor=2384336 | title=Chigo Monogatari. Love Stories or Buddhist Sermons? | last1=Childs | first1=Margaret H. | journal=Monumenta Nipponica | year=1980 | volume=35 | issue=2 | pages=127–151 }}</ref> the relationship would be dissolved once the boy reached adulthood (or left the monastery). Both parties were encouraged to treat the relationship seriously and conduct the affair honorably, and the ''nenja'' might be required to write a formal vow of fidelity. Outside of the monasteries, monks were considered to have a particular predilection for male prostitutes, which was the subject of much ribald humor.<ref name=":2">Pflugfelder, Gregory M. (1997). ''Cartographies of desire: male–male sexuality in Japanese discourse, 1600–1950''. University of California Press. p. 26, 39–42, 75, 70-71, 252,</ref>

There is no evidence so far of religious opposition to homosexuality within Japan in [[Ethnic religion|non-Buddhist traditions]].<ref>''The Greenwood encyclopedia of LGBT issues worldwide'', Volume 1, Chuck Stewart, p.430; accessed through Google Books</ref> [[Edo period|Tokugawa]] commentators felt free to illustrate [[kami]] engaging in [[anal sex]] with each other. During the Tokugawa period, some of the Shinto gods, especially [[Hachiman]], Myoshin, Shinmei and [[Tenjin (kami)|Tenjin]], "came to be seen as guardian deities of ''nanshoku''" (male–male love). Tokugawa-era writer [[Ihara Saikaku]] joked that since there are no women for the first three generations in the genealogy of the gods found in the [[Nihon Shoki]], the gods must have enjoyed homosexual relationships—which Saikaku argued was the real origin of ''nanshoku''.<ref>[[Homosexuality in Japan#CITEREFLeupp1997|Leupp 1997]], p. 32.</ref> Nonetheless, during the Edo period, male-female relationships were highly valued as it ensured propagation of offspring and social status.<ref>Love of Samurai: A thousand years of Japanese homosexuality (1989). By: Watanabe, Tsuneo; Iwata, Jun`ichi; Robertson, Jennifer. ''Journal of the History of Sexuality'', OCTOBER 1991, Vol. 2 Issue 2; (AN WMST-33096)</ref>

=== Samurai ''shudō'' ===
In contrast to the norms in religious circles, in the warrior ([[samurai]]) class it was customary for a boy in the ''[[wakashū]]'' age category to undergo training in the martial arts by apprenticing to a more experienced adult man. According to Furukawa, the relationship was based on the model of a typically older ''nenja,'' paired with a typically younger ''chigo''.<ref name=":0" /> The man was permitted, if the boy agreed, to take the boy as his lover until he came of age; this relationship, often formalized in a "brotherhood contract",<ref name="Leupp"/> was expected to be exclusive, with both partners swearing to take no other (male) lovers.

This practice, along with clerical pederasty, developed into the codified system of age-structured homosexuality known as ''shudō'', abbreviated from ''wakashūdō'', the "way (''[[Tao]]'') of ''wakashū''".<ref name=":2" /> The older partner, in the role of ''nenja'', would teach the ''chigo'' martial skills, warrior etiquette, and the samurai code of honor, while his desire to be a good role model for his ''chigo'' would lead him to behave more honorably himself; thus a ''shudō'' relationship was considered to have a "mutually ennobling effect".<ref name=":2" /> In addition, both parties were expected to be loyal unto death, and to assist the other both in feudal duties and in honor-driven obligations such as duels and vendettas. Although sex between the couple was expected to end when the boy came of age, the relationship would, ideally, develop into a lifelong bond of friendship. At the same time, sexual activity with women was not barred (for either party), and once the boy came of age, both were free to seek other ''wakashū'' lovers.

Like later Edo same-sex practices, samurai ''shudō'' was strictly role-defined; the ''nenja'' was seen as the active, desiring, penetrative partner, while the younger, sexually receptive ''wakashū'' was considered to submit to the ''nenja''<nowiki/>'s attentions out of love, loyalty, and affection, rather than sexual desire<ref name=":0" /><sup>''d'']</sup> Among the samurai class, adult men were (by definition) not permitted to take the ''wakashū'' role; only preadult boys (or, later, lower-class men) were considered legitimate targets of homosexual desire. In some cases, ''shudō'' relationships arose between boys of similar ages, but the parties were still divided into ''nenja'' and ''wakashū'' roles.<ref name=":0" />

[[Image:Samurai kiss.jpg|right|thumb|Man and youth, [[Miyagawa Isshō]], ca. 1750; Panel from a series of ten on a shunga-style painted hand scroll (kakemono-e); sumi, color and gofun on silk. Private collection. Note that the youth on the left is wearing a kimono whose style ([[furisode]]) and color was considered appropriate for adolescents of both sexes but not adult men, which along with the partially shaved pate denotes the boy's ''[[wakashū]]'' age status while the exposed bare feet indicates the purely sexual demeanor.]]

=== Kabuki and male prostitution ===
Male prostitutes (''[[kagema]]''), who were often passed off as apprentice [[kabuki]] actors and catered to a mixed male and female clientele, did a healthy trade into the mid-19th century despite increasing restrictions. Many such prostitutes, as well as many young kabuki actors, were [[indentured servant]]s sold as children to the brothel or theatre, typically on a ten-year contract. Sexual relations between merchants and boys hired as shop staff or housekeepers were common enough, at least in the popular imagination, to be the subject of erotic stories and popular jokes. Young [[kabuki]] actors often worked as prostitutes off-stage, and were celebrated in much the same way as modern celebrities are, being much sought after by wealthy patrons, who would vie with each other to purchase the Kabuki actors' favors. ''[[Onnagata]]'' (female-role) and ''wakashū-gata'' (adolescent boy-role) actors in particular were the subject of much appreciation by both male and female patrons, and figured largely in ''nanshoku'' [[shunga]] prints and other works celebrating ''nanshoku'', which occasionally attained best-seller status.<ref name="Leupp"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.androphile.org/preview/Culture/Japan/japan.htm|title=Gay love in Japan – World History of Male Love|access-date=8 April 2018|archive-date=3 August 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060803183048/http://www.androphile.org/preview/Culture/Japan/japan.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Male prostitutes and actor-prostitutes serving male clientele were originally restricted to the ''[[wakashū]]'' age category, as adult men were not perceived as desirable or socially acceptable sexual partners for other men. During the 17th century, these men (or their employers) sought to maintain their desirability by deferring or concealing their coming-of-age and thus extending their "non-adult" status into their twenties or even thirties; this eventually led to an alternate, status-defined ''shudō'' relationship which allowed clients to hire "boys" who were, in reality, older than themselves. This evolution was hastened by mid-17th-century bans on the depiction of the ''wakashū''<nowiki/>'s long forelocks, their most salient age marker, in kabuki plays; intended to efface the sexual appeal of the young actors and thus reduce violent competition for their favors, this restriction eventually had the unintended effect of decoupling male sexual desirability from actual age, so long as a suitably "youthful" appearance could be maintained.<ref name=":3" /><ref name="Leupp"/>

[[Image:Nishikawa-Sukenobu.jpg|right|thumb|A ''[[wakashū]]'' (wearing headscarf) sneaks a kiss from a female prostitute behind his patron's back. [[Nishikawa Sukenobu]], {{Circa|1716–1735}}. Hand-colored print.]]

===Art of same-sex love===
These activities were the subject of countless literary works, most of which have yet to be translated. However, English translations are available for [[Ihara Saikaku]] who created a bisexual main character in ''The Life of An Amorous Man'' (1682), [[Jippensha Ikku]] who created an initial male-male relationship in the post-publication "Preface" to ''Shank's Mare'' (1802 et seq), and [[Ueda Akinari]] who had a homosexual Buddhist monk in ''Tales of Moonlight and Rain'' (1776). Likewise, many of the greatest artists of the period, such as [[Hokusai]] and [[Hiroshige]], prided themselves in documenting such loves in their prints, known as [[ukiyo-e]] "pictures of the floating world", and where they had an erotic tone, [[shunga]] "pictures of spring".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.androphile.org/preview/Museum/Japan/Japanindex.htm|title=Japanese Hall|access-date=8 April 2018|archive-date=3 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303173940/http://www.androphile.org/preview/Museum/Japan/Japanindex.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

''Nanshoku'' was not considered incompatible with heterosexuality; books of erotic prints dedicated to ''nanshoku'' often presented erotic images of both young women (concubines, ''mekake'', or prostitutes, ''jōrō'') as well as attractive adolescent boys (''[[wakashū]]'') and cross-dressing youths (''[[onnagata]]''). Indeed, several works suggest that the most "enviable" situation would be to have both many ''jōrō'' and many ''wakashū''.<ref name=":4">Mostow, Joshua S. (2003), "The gender of ''wakashu'' and the grammar of desire", in Joshua S. Mostow; Norman Bryson; Maribeth Graybill, ''Gender and power in the Japanese visual field'', University of Hawaii Press, pp. 49–70</ref> Likewise, women were considered to be particularly attracted to both ''wakashū'' and ''onnagata'', and it was assumed that many of these young men would reciprocate that interest.<ref name=":4" /> Therefore, both many practitioners of ''nanshoku'' and the young men they desired would be considered [[Bisexuality|bisexual]] in modern terminology. Men and male youths (there are examples of both) who were purely homosexual might be called "woman-haters" (''onna-girai''); this term, however, carried the connotation of [[Misogyny|aggressive distaste of women]] in all social contexts, rather than simply a preference for male sexual partners. Not all exclusively homosexual men were referred to with this terminology.<ref name="Leupp"/>

=== Exclusive homosexuality and personal sexual identity ===

''[[The Great Mirror of Male Love]]'' (男色大鏡) by [[Ihara Saikaku]] was the definitive work on the subject of "male love" in Tokugawa Era Japan. 
In his introduction to ''The Great Mirror of Male Love'', Paul Gordon Schalow writes, "In the opening chapter of Nanshoku Okagami, Saikaku employed the title in its literal sense when he stated 'I have attempted to reflect in this great mirror all of the varied manifestations of male love.{{'"}}<ref name=":schallow">{{Cite book|title=Introduction to The Great Mirror of Male Love|last=Schallow|first=Paul|publisher=Stanford University Press|year=1990|isbn=0804718954|pages=1, 4, 11–12, 29}}</ref> It was intended to be a societal reflection of all the different ways men in Tokugawa society loved other men.

The most common narrative of male to male sex and/or love was what we would now consider a "bisexual"{{citation needed|date=November 2020}} experience: the "connoisseur of boys" or ''shojin-zuki''. This term was applied not simply to men who engaged in "bisexual" behavior, but most often to men who engaged sexually and/or romantically with boys ''often'', but not exclusively. <ref name=":schallow"/><ref name="Leupp"/>

In ''History of homosexuality in Japan'' by Vanja Zenzerovic, he writes:<blockquote>Male homosexuality in Japan has a long tradition that goes back to the eighth century, even if, until very recently, the notion of the homosexual intended as a person with different erotic preferences wasn’t present in Japanese culture. To the point that there wasn’t a specific term for homosexuals besides “wakashū” and “okama” and consequently the majority of the homosexual slang was imported from English terminology such as ‘gei’ or ‘homo’.</blockquote>

There were ''wakashū'' who would now be considered "homosexual", ''wakashū'' who would now be considered "bisexual", and ''wakashū'' who would now be considered "heterosexual", as well as many who could not be easily sorted into these categories.<ref name=":schallow"/><ref name="Leupp"/>

References to ''wakashū'' exclusively interested in men were relatively common, as in the example of the popular actor described in the story ''Winecup Overflowing'', who was sent many love letters from women, but who, "ignored them completely, not out of cold heartedness, but because he was devoted to the way of male love."<ref>''Winecup Overflowing, The Great Mirror of Male Love''. Paul Gordon Schalow (trans.) p. 222.</ref>

''Wakashū'' who felt this way could simply transition to being the "man" partner to a "boy", or, in some circumstances (of varying social acceptability), continue his life in the sociosexual role of "boy".<ref name=":schallow"/><ref name="Leupp"/>

There is also much evidence of young men who engaged in this behavior out of duty, rather than love, or lust. Like in, ''The Boy Who Sacrificed His Life'', where Saikaku writes, "it seems that Yata Nisaburo of whom you spoke to me in private is not a believer in boy love.  He was not interested in the idea of having a male lover and so, though only seventeen and in the flower of youth, has foolishly cut off his forelocks. I found his profuse apologies rather absurd but have decided to let the matter drop. Last night everyone came over and we spent the whole night laughing about it...."<ref>''The Boy Who Sacrificed His Life, The Great Mirror of Male Love''. Paul Gordon Schalow (trans.) p. 168.</ref>

Another Tokugawa author, Eijima Kiseki, who references exclusive homosexuality, writes of a character in his 1715 The ''Characters of Worldly Young Men'', "who had never cared for women: all his life he remained unmarried, in the grip of intense passions for one handsome boy after another."

There is a genre of stories dedicated to debating the value of "male colors", "female colors", or the "following of both paths". "Colors" here indicating a specific way of sexual desire, with the desire coming from the adult male participant, to the receiving woman or "youth".  Depending on what audience the story was written for, the answer to the preferred way of life might be that the best way is to be exclusive to women, moderately invested in both women and boys, or exclusive to boys. Although these "ways of loving" were not considered incompatible, there were people and groups who advocated the exclusive following of one way, considered them spiritually at odds, or simply only personally experienced attractions in line with one of these "ways".<ref name=":schallow"/><ref name="Leupp"/>

=== Social role play in man and boy roles ===

Traditional expressions of male to male sexual and romantic activity were between a man who had gone through with his coming of age ceremony, and a male youth who had not.<ref name=":schallow"/><ref name="Leupp"/>

In his introduction to ''The Great Mirror of Male Love'', Schallow writes, "a careful reading of nanshoku okagami makes clear that the constraint requiring that male homosexual relations be between an adult male and a ''wakashū'' was sometimes observed only in the form of fictive roleplaying. This meant that relations between pairs of man-boy lovers were accepted as legitimate whether or not a real man and a real boy were involved, so long as one partner took the role of 'man' and the other the role of 'boy.{{'"}}<ref name=":schallow"/>
 
In ''Two Old Cherry Trees Still in Bloom'', the protagonists are two men who have been in love since they were youths. The "man" in this relationship is 66, and the "boy" in this relationship is 63.<ref>''Two Old Cherry Trees Still in Bloom, The Great Mirror of Male Love''. Paul Gordon Schalow (trans.) p. 181.</ref>

In the realm of male kabuki (as opposed to "boy" kabuki), Saikaku writes,<ref>''Kichiya Riding a Horse, The Great Mirror of Male Love''. Paul Gordon Schalow (trans.) p. 215.</ref><blockquote>now, since everyone wore the hairstyle of adult men, it was still possible at age 34 or 35 for youthful-looking actors to get under a man's robe...If skill is what the audience is looking for, there should be no problem in having a 70 year old perform as a youth in long sleeved robes. So long as he can continue to find patrons willing to spend the night with him, he can then enter the new year without pawning his belongings.</blockquote>The protagonist of Saikaku's ''An Amorous Man'' hires the services of a "boy" who turns out to be ten years his senior, and finds himself disappointed.<ref name="Leupp"/>

In the ''Ugetsu Monogatari'', written by Ueda Akinari (1734–1809), the story ''Kikuka no chigiri'' is commonly believed to be about a romantic relationship between two adult men, where neither obviously holds the sociosexual role of ''wakashū'', though they do structure it with their age difference in mind, using the "male love" terminology "older brother" versus "younger brother".  In the story of Haemon and Takashima, two adult men, they also use this terminology, and Takashima additionally presents himself as a ''wakashū''.<ref name="Leupp"/>

Mentions of men who openly enjoy both being the penetrating and penetrated partner are not found in these works, but are found in earlier Heian personal diaries, like in the diary of [[Fujiwara no Yorinaga]], who writes on wanting to perform both the penetrative, and the receptive, sexual role. This is also referenced in a Muromachi era poem by the Shingon priest Socho (1448–1532).  This may indicate that the mores surrounding appropriate homosexual conduct for men had changed rapidly in the course of one-to-two centuries.<ref name="Leupp"/>